Hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites from across Nepal join the parade in Kathmandu during the annual Hindu festival to remember the dead.

Photo: Prakash Mathema, AFP/Getty Images

Hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites from across...

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A participant has the body painted with blue paint as hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites parade through the streets during Gaijatra festival in Katmandu, Nepal, Monday, Aug. 11, 2014. The Hindu festival to remember the dead is gleefully overtaken each year by the country's gay community in this socially conservative Hindu-majority nation. (AP Photo/Bikram Rai)

Tooting horns and ringing chimes, hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites paraded through Nepal's capital Monday for a colorful celebration of Gaijatra, a Hindu festival to remember the dead that is gleefully overtaken each year by the country's gay community.

In this socially conservative Hindu-majority nation, the festival was traditionally the only day people felt free to cross-dress. But social norms are changing fast as this fledgling Himalayan democracy emerges from centuries of religious monarchy.

A government committee is recommending same-sex marriage be guaranteed in a new constitution - an unprecedented move that would give gay and lesbian couples the right to adopt, buy joint property, open joint bank accounts and inherit from one another. All of the country's political parties have already backed the idea, and many within the small gay community hope the new constitution can be passed this year.

"When we gather again next year, we hope we are able celebrate the new law," said 28-year-old Bipin Lamichane, who wants to marry the partner he has lived with for five years. But changing laws may be easier than changing minds in a country where arranged marriage is still the norm, and up to a decade ago homosexuals were routinely jailed for up to three months on accusations of "unnatural sex."

Bhakti Shah, who was fired from the army in 2007 when officers suspected her relationship with another enlisted woman, is still hiding their partnership from landlords and neighbors.

"People still think we are two friends or sisters sharing an apartment," Shah said. "How can we tell everyone we are a couple when we don't have anything in paper to back it?"

New legal rights and status would give Shah and others the documentation they need to prove a union. Hindu priest Laxman Acharya said he expected most Nepalese to accept the change, given their cultural diversity and youth; the median age in Nepal is 21, and nearly 35 percent of the 27.5 million population is 14 or younger.

But not everyone approves.

"This is ridiculous, marriage is a sacred thing between a husband and wife that has worked for centuries, and it should be left alone," said retired government worker Raja Sharma, 62. "Nepal has enough problems."